Chapter 669 – Contained in Starlight
Chapter 669: Embedded in Starlight
In the king of the pale giants of the chaotic one-eye reflected in the many figures, leaving an empty space – is a coincidence, or the ancient kings of the intentional?
All Duncan knew was that he happened to be standing in front of that empty space when he came to the side of the ship to look carefully into the great single eye – his figure was reflected there, and he did not realize this until he recognized other unnamable figures in the murky, precipitating mist on the surface of the giant eye.
It might indeed be mere coincidence – he was tempted to tell himself that, but in subspace, in front of the corpse of an ancient god, he did not believe in such coincidences.
Duncan’s brow furrowed, and then cautiously, little by little, he slowly stepped backward, as if afraid of waking something here.
The dead king of the pale giants, and the figures of the kings reflected in that single eye – Duncan always felt as if these beings were silently watching himself, watching his every move, as if casting distant glances from the ages.
In cautious, slow motion, he left the solitary eye above him.
The next instant, however, he saw his own figure emerge again, and once more silently reflected in that eye, reflected among the kings.
Duncan’s eyes widened slightly in an instant, and he felt as if his heart had stopped violently for half a beat, and immediately afterward, a sight that caught him even more off guard appeared:
The figure of himself left in the giant’s one eye was gradually changing.
The blurred figure in the captain’s uniform, wearing a gloomy three-cornered hat, tall and majestic, was trembling and changing, as if it were some kind of illusion fading away, and the figure was rapidly changing into something else – a not-so-fit-looking, not-quite-healthy, not-quite-legible “human being” in a white shirt and black pants, with a blurred, not-quite-recognizable face. “Human”.
That was “Zhou Ming”.
Zhou Ming stood motionless on the deck, as if he were a statue, staring at the cloudy eye that was only a stone’s throw away from the side of the ship, staring at “himself” reflected in that eye.
After an unknown period of time, he finally took a step forward, and once again came to the giant eye – through a layer of cloudy mist condensed on the surface of the eyeball, he gazed at his own blurred reflection, and slowly stretched out his hand forward.
He knew he was taking a risk, that he was making an appalling attempt in this bizarre and dangerous subspace – but eventually, his fingers touched the surface of the eyeball.
A feeling of “nothingness” came from his fingertips, and in just a moment, Zhou Ming understood what Lucrecia had told him about the “nothingness” he felt when he touched the cylindrical black shadow at the border.
He was certain that he had touched something, but he did not feel any temperature, nor did he feel any hardness, and he was briefly stunned by the strange “perception” that came from his fingertips.
In the next instant, Zhou Ming saw his own reflection in his eyeballs suddenly change – the “human” in the white shirt quickly collapsed like an unstable illusion, every part of the colors that made up the image faded and collapsed in the blink of an eye, and in the midst of the fading colors, countless stars and stars appeared. In the midst of the fading colors, a myriad of starbursts of light emerged from it!
A brilliant starburst replaced the rapidly dissipating figure and spread along the darkness in all directions, they maintained the blurred and distorted outline of a human being for the first second, but countless starbursts continued to overflow from all sides of the human outline as if it were overflowing, a river of starbursts of light covered the entire eyeball in almost the blink of an eye, and then continued to overflow and upwell – -The starlight finally overflowed out of the eyeball, spreading out from the surface of the eyeball!
The light flowed like a stream, touching Zhou Ming’s finger, and at the moment of the “contact”, Zhou Ming heard a roar from his mind!
It was the loud sound of countless iterations, the “tremor” of a massive amount of information being compressed into a single moment, a section of data vast enough to explain the operating laws of the entire world, an entrance, a door, and billions of people’s instructions and thoughts, in this brief, eternal moment that could only be a single Planck’s time, Zhou Ming felt as if he was being torn apart! Zhou Ming felt as if he was being torn apart, his consciousness sank in and out of this roar, struggling to find the voices that were iterated in the roar, and he felt as if he was about to comprehend the meanings of those voices, while many shattered fragments swarmed into his mind, blasting through his reasoning –
“…… We are humans …… We stand at this moment at the end of all things.”
In that roar, in that myriad of fragments, a voice said so.
Zhou Ming’s eyes instantly widened.
“…… We have understood almost all of the mysteries ……
“…… The laws of the operation of the stars …… Time and space, the rise and fall of information ……
“Until we discover that the end of time is destruction …… an event beyond our cognitive model …… occurs beyond our universe ……
“Moving forward along time no longer makes sense …… In a finite model …… the chances of undoing the event are zero …… We decided to send the #*#%$@ backwards to ……
“We …… named …… the ‘inverse singularity’ …… in our calculations in …… the only fully survivable segment in all timelines after that event was 0.002 seconds in length ……
“You are Zhou Ming, and you …… old calendar timestamp 2022-07-10-07-10-00-000…… to end 2022-07-10-07-10-00-002 ……
“It is now 41765-12c-32-15b, and all things end before our eyes.
“Good luck.
“Good luck to them.
“Wish us ……”
“Boom–“
Zhou Ming felt as if he had come to an abrupt halt from an eternal descent, suddenly breaking free from a certain frozen moment, the countless iterations of the roar transformed into a distant, blurred impression in his mind, and the rational part of him that belonged to a “human being” returned in an instant, and in this brief, fragile moment of rationality, he violently stepped backward.
But the bright starlight had somehow dissipated. The starlight overflowing from the giant’s one eye had disappeared, and the reflection on the surface of the eyeball had also disappeared – not just “Duncan” and “Zhou Ming”, Not only did the reflections of “Duncan”, “Zhou Ming”, and the “Starlight Giant” disappear, but also those figures that once stood in the darkness, symbolizing the ancient kings.
The “shadows” that had coalesced in this eye for a hundred centuries seemed to have been “washed” away by something in that instantaneous boom just now, leaving only a hazy murkiness representing death covering the eyeballs, in which there was no more information that could be discerned.
Obviously, this eyeball was just some kind of “information carrier”, and now with a strong release and washing of information, everything that had coalesced on its surface had been cleared away.
The surroundings quieted down, there was no more noise and roar, subspace seemed to return to eternal stagnation, and all was quiet on the wrecked deck of the Lost Country.
However, the broken “fragments” that had swarmed out from the roar just now were still swirling around in Zhou Ming’s consciousness, like a continuous hurricane, whistling through his mind and thoughts over and over again – this “hurricane” passed through him. The “hurricane” gradually subsided after a long time, turning into deep impressions and memories that remained permanently in his mind.
Zhou Ming took a few steps backward, raising his hand and pressing it to his forehead as he gasped for breath, his violently beating heart gradually calming down.
The ability to think returned to him.
Zhou Ming stood for a long time in the chaotic dimness of subspace, letting the meaningless time here slowly pass as he pondered in this eternal silence, continually pondering until an unknown amount of time had passed before his figure once again made a move.
He raised his head and looked into the distant darkness.
Boundless subspace engulfed his gaze.
Countless secrets should still be hidden in that boundless darkness – but he was tired.
The “roar” had almost exhausted his energy, and he no longer had the strength to steer this ghost ship to challenge the endless darkness.
“…… It’s time to go back.”
Zhou Ming mumbled softly, and at the same time, he took a step and slowly came to the door of the captain’s cabin – he still remembered the way to return to the real world from the sub-space, as long as he pushed open the “Lost Homeland Door” from here, and entered into another dark space, and then opened the door from the dark space, he would be able to return to the real dimension. He remembered the way to return to the real world from the subspace.
When he put his hand on the handle of the Gate of the Lost Country, he paused and then looked back at the boundless chaos behind him.
He knew that he would return sooner or later.
Without further hesitation, he quickly and smoothly completed the return operation of “opening the door twice”.
When the familiar sound of the sea waves again into the ears, the taste of salty and cool night breeze blowing across the cheeks, Duncan felt his heart finally settled down again – he returned to the familiar real world.
Lifting his head up, the cool light of the World’s Creation was spilling into the sea from a high altitude, while the faint golden sunlight spreading over from the distant sea intertwined with that clear light in the sky, outlining the unique, eerie, yet fascinating night scene near the Port of Light Winds.
A slight creaking sound was mixed in with the sound of the nearby waves, interspersed with the friction sound made by the automatic adjustment of the cables on the mast.
Everything experienced in subspace was like a light and strange dream.
Duncan shook his head, knowing that of course it wasn’t a dream – it was vital information, even the “truth” about his own nature.
But he could only put the flurry of thoughts to the back of his mind for the moment – there was too much critical information missing to draw any conclusions from his current ramblings.
On the other side of the door came a voice from the captain’s cabin, his familiar “first mate”.
“…… The customs of the northern seas are finished, I’ll tell you about the central seas, I’m an experienced seafarer, the city-state of the central seas ……”
A smile involuntarily surfaced on his face, Duncan felt his heart relax a little again, then he exhaled deeply and opened the door of the captain’s room.
At the edge of the sailing table, the goat’s head, chattering away to another head, immediately stopped and turned to look at the captain standing in the doorway.
“Duncan Abnormale.” Duncan said casually before the man could ask a question.
The goathead was stunned for a moment and his tone became pleasant, “Ah! The Captain is back!”
(End of chapter)